Тема 15. Antiwar theme in the novels of 50-60s of XX century.

Проблемные вопросы лекции. The creative works of G. Greene as the highest achievement of English realism in the post war period. The particularity of G. Greene’s novel The Quiet American. The literature of ‘Angry Young Men’, expression of revolt.

Тезисы лекций. Graham Greene (1904-1999), another Catholic convert, has been obsessed with the problem of good and evil, and his books are a curious compound of theology and stark modern realism. Greene sees the spiritual struggle of man against a background of ‘seedy, crowded’ town life (Brighton Rock) or in the Mexican Jungle (The power and the Glory) or in wartime West Africa (The heart of the Matter). In this last work, and also in the moving The End of the Affair, Greene shows a concern with the paradox of the man or woman who, technically a sinner is really a saint. Some of his works have conflicted with Catholic orthodoxy (especially in Ireland). The Quiet American, is a political novel set in Indo –China in wartime, showed its hero as not only crassly materialistic but dangerously innocent by reason of his failure to understand other people, he turns to a moral theme – how far are good intentions enough? Graham Greene divides his many books into two groups: serious novels and entertainments. in his serious novels the characters who are failures – in comparison with what they wanted and hoped to do – are seen as being neared God than those who are more successful in worldly ways. Brighton Rock 1938 has at its centre an evil man who thinks he can conquer everything and everyone who stands in his way. He is outside the laws of man, but for Greene only God’s law is strong enough to reach him: his soul can after all be saved because he did love once. The Power and the Glory 1949 one of Green’s strongest novels, tells the story of a priest in South America who is in danger form the forces of the state and has the choice of saving his soul / by continuing to act as a priest/ or his body /ether by escaping or by breaking the promises he made when he became a priest/ . He knows very well the weakness of his own nature and this, to Greene, makes him more able to rise to spiritual greatness than a man who had not done so much wrong. Greene’s lighter novels are distinguished by fine construction and admirably terse prose. In both categories, ‘entertainments, like the expert thrillers, This Gun for Hire and The Ministry of Fear and ‘novels’, as Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, he is concerned obviously or subtly with evil and its endless conflict with righteousness.

The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger. It is thought to be derived from the autobiography of Leslie Paul, founder of the Woodcraft Folk, whose Angry Young Man was published in 1951. Following the success of the Osborne play, the label was later applied by British media to describe young British writers who were characterized by a disillusionment with traditional English society. The term, always imprecise, began to have less meaning over the years as the writers to whom it was originally applied became more divergent, and many of them dismissed the label as useless.

Look Back in Anger (1956) is a John Osborne play—made into films in 1959, 1980, and 1989—about a love triangle involving an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working class origin (Jimmy Porter), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife (Alison), and her haughty best friend (Helena Charles). Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace. The play was a success on the London stage, and spawned the term "angry young men" to describe Osborne and those of his generation who employed the harshness of realism in the theatre in contrast to the more escapist theatre that characterized the previous generation.

Список литературы. Alexander M. A History of English Literature, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Thornley G.C., Roberts G. An outline of English Literature, Longman, 2002

Drabble M., Stringer J. Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature.

Интернет ресурсы. G. Greene “The Quiet American” http://www.truly-free.org/

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu.~j

www.britishliterature.com

http://vos.ucsb.edu